Confrontations: On Bonding
by Oneesan Neko
Summary: Human senses can't detect many cybertronian relationships. When such relationships become apparent, some confusion may occur.
1. On Bonding: Jazz and Prowl

Human senses are insufficient to describe the vast complexities and degrees of relations among Cybertronians. Therefore, while it was obvious to their fellow Autobots that Jazz and Prowl were bondmates, that Jazz and Inferno were siblings, and all the other relationships tying together the members of the various department and even the command structure of the Autobots, Spike, Sparkplug and the other humans were in the dark, until one battle.

It started the way all Autobot/Decepticon battles had started, at least since they landed on Earth. Megatron was raiding a major solar power plant in the Nevada desert, and the Autobots were called to stop him. Things were going fairly well, the Decepticons pulling themselves together to retreat, when Skywarp got a lucky shot, and Prowl went down.

Spike was standing between Jazz and Bumblebee, and watched, confused, as the Autobot saboteur gasped, clutching at his chest for a moment optics narrowed. Bumblebee turned to him in concern, and was waved off as Jazz stood back up. "Keep watch over the kid, hey younglin?" Jazz said to Bumblebee, turning and walking across the battlefield.

The scene had diminished to chaos as the Autobots' lost Prowl's live tactical field and the Decepticons' seized a perceived opportunity. But just as they were beginning to loose hope, the Autobots heard someone take over the tactical feed. Confusion reared in their processors for a moment, at the sound of Jazz's terse voice leading the battle, but used to following the third in command in battle, the mechs on the battlefield began to retaliate, driving the Decepticons back to their former position, and further as Megatron finally sounded the retreat. And as the last Decepticon finally left the battlefield, Spike standing at the back of the battlefield near Bumblebee and Bluestreak watched as Jazz suddenly collapsed to his knees.

Ratchet immediately ran to where Jazz knelt over Prowl's prone chassis. He reached out a hand to touch the saboteur, who shook it off. "'M fine," he said, "Jus' bond shock. Deal with Prowl."

Ratchet nodded, "Of course. Optimus?"

"I have called Skyfire. He will transport you and the injured back to base. Jazz, are you okay to travel?"

"Yeah. Battle protocols were up, I'll be fine in a min or two."

"Alright then." His voice changed, projecting on air and communication lines now, "Autobots, load the injured onto Skyfire, then transform and roll out."

Sky fire touched down in a clear area to the left of the battlefield. Supported or carried by their comrades, injured mechs were loaded into his holds. As Jazz walked out, having deposited Prowl on board, Ratchet walked on. The last of his passengers now loaded, Skyfire took off. The remaining Autobots transformed, and Spike found himself making the three hour drive back to Mount Saint Hillary with Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, what happened there? One minute the Decepticons are retreating, then Jazz goes all weird, then everything goes crazy for a minute and then the Decepticons are in trouble again. It makes no sense. Why did the Decepticons act like they suddenly thought they could win?"

"Not suddenly. What happened was that Prowl got hit, and the tactical feed went down. They didn't just think they could win, if Jazz hadn't taken over I'm sure they probably would have."

"What? But . . ."

"You may not realize it Spike, but it takes a lot of tactical ability to keep our forces where they need to be during a battle. Sure Prowl fights, but you will notice he is usually near another mech who can cover for him. That is because he is constantly streaming live tactical information through his battle computer in order to provide the rest of us with a tactical feed. He is the one who makes sure no bot has more than he can handle and we are all where we need to be. It takes a lot of processing power, and some specialized communication arrays. His tactical data is why we can win, even though the Decepticons frequently have us outnumbered and outgunned."

"Wow. And he got hurt? Bad enough that he couldn't keep doing that?"

"Yes. And Jazz knew, even before the feed was dropped obviously, so he was able to get to safety and take over the feed. He is one of the few bots with a battle computer as complex as it needs to be to manage the tactical feed and the correct communications equipment. Usually he is more of a strategy bot, TIC and head of special ops and all, but he has the knowledge, so he usually takes over when Prowl's down. Unfortunately, if Prowl's its only a matter of time before Jazz is out too. If the battle had lasted another hour or two we would have been in serious trouble."

"Only a matter of time? Why would Prowl being out cause Jazz to be in trouble. I mean, sure the Decepticons would be targeting him, but this is the first time I have seen Prowl majorly injured, and Jazz is at least as good a fighter as he is."

"Bond shock, Spike."

"Bond shock?"

"Prowl and Jazz are bondmates. Even with battle protocols up, major damage to a bondmate causes a great deal of stress in in the systems of his or her bonded. Add the secondary stress of running his battle computer at full capacity and Jazz's systems can only stand up for so long. We all know this. If Prowl gets hit, the battle needs to end, quick. We take a great deal of care to see that it does."

"What if Jazz were to get hit?"

"Same thing is true. We try to wrap it up quick. If we can't, Optimus sounds the retreat. We may hate it, but better to back off then to loose both of them."

"Both of them?"

"A healthy mech might survive the loss of his or her bondmate. But bond shock can kill, no doubt about it, and with the surviving mech already injured . . . it wouldn't be a good prognosis Spike."

"Okay, and back to earlier . . . you said Prowl and Jazz are bondmates. What is that exactly?"

"It's . . . well I guess the closest humans have is something like marriage."

"But . . . they're both guys!"

"Sort of. Our gender is complicated Spike. By convention, on sexually differentiated planets mechs go by the gender closest to their frame-type in appearance. On earth, which is sexually dimorphic with males larger, that means that standard framed mechs, who are bulkier and generally taller, go by male pronouns. If any femme framed mechs, who tend to be smaller and lighter were to come to earth, they would probably use female pronouns, because they most closely resemble earth females."

"Okay, back to bondmates. You said it was like marriage, but on earth, if one partner in a marriage dies, the other doesn't get sick or die too or anything like that. So obviously there is something different."

"Well, you know Sideswipe and Sunstreaker? How they are twins, born from the same spark, and because of that they can do somethings other mechs can't?"

"Like how they always know where one another are? And how they can talk without anyone else knowing it?"

"Exactly. Bondmates create a link like that, but they do it differently. Instead of being something present from birth, it results from certain ceremonies and procedures. They do it to show that they are married, sort of like humans give rings or some other trinket."

"Wow. But, human marriage rings are something we wear, everyone can see them. This bonding thing . . . it isn't so obvious. I mean, I didn't even know!"

"It may not be obvious to you, but to us . . . it is immediately obvious in their spark harmonics. A cybertronian might not notice a bonded pair if he met them separately . . . or would know they were bonded but not to who. But if he met them together, it would be . . . as obvious as humans wearing rings and kissing each other."

"Wow. Is there any way I could find out who is bonded?"

"You will in time Spike. Just keep your eyes open. If you think you spot a pair, ask me. I will tell you though, because of the way thinks are on earth, femmes bonded to other frame-types are going to be the most obvious. They can get away with it, while standard frame pairs, where both members go by male pronouns have to be more discreet."

"Well obviously! It might not be a big thing on Cybertron, but here . . ."

"We're not human. We can't change that Spike, but we don't have to make your people uncomfortable either."

"Hmmm." Spike was quiet for the rest of the ride, thinking.


	2. On Bonding: Optimus Prime and Elita 1

Confrontations: On Bonding

Optimus Prime and Elita 1

Sparkplug had heard from his son about the complex relationships among Cybertronians. He had seen some of it for himself, in the way the twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe acted. The way they always knew where they both were, they way they communicated without a word in either English or Cybertronian. According to Spike, they also had a way of artificially creating this effect, something they considered like marriage. His son seemed to take it like a game, trying to spot such couples. Sparkplug thought nothing of it, until he met the mech known as Elita 1.

She (and a female robot was shock enough, even is Spike said it was not quite the correct translation), was quite obviously involved with Optimus Prime. Nothing subtle about it, he had seen her and Optimus Prime kissing for goodness sakes. And the rest of the bots seemed to take this in stride though there had been a few jeering comments about the kissed from certain mechs. It was . . . strange to say the least.

After a few weeks of observing this odd behavior whenever the femme visited the base, Sparkplug finally took his son's advise and sat down for a long talk with the Autobot scout that had more or less adopted his family.

"Bumblebee?" He said, coming up on where the yellow Volkswagen was resting in alt mode.

Bumblebee opened his door in a silent invitation for Sparkplug to enter his cab.

Sparkplug climbed in, patting the console as he took his seat. "Sorry to bother you, but well, some things I have seen between Optimus Prime and Elita 1 have been bothering me, and Spike suggested I talk to you."

"Of course Sparkplug. But I will warn you, I am one of the younger Autobots, and I may not be able to answer all of your questions. If you need more I suggest you talk to Jazz, he is pretty easy going, and he has a lot more experience than me."

"I'm not sure I would feel comfortable with that. Spike says he is . . . bonded . . . to Prowl, and in our culture that is just . . .."

"I know your culture has a taboo against same sex relationships. We don't mean to make you uncomfortable, gender among cybertronians is very complex. Because of this there is no such taboo, in part because we are to a certain extent like certain earth amphibians, in that we can choose whether we are "male" or "female" in the sense of being able to bear offspring at will. Also, our closest equivalent to human gender is frame-subtype, and in that sense Prowl and Jazz are to us very different."

"Hmm. Yet, Elita 1 refers to herself as female, while the rest of you are male. She also calls herself a 'femme' while the rest of you use mech."

"That is a deliberate affectation to make our species more . . . comprehensible to yours. The word "Femme" in fact refers to a specific frame-subtype, one that occurs in most of the major frame-types. Most frame-types have perhaps five to six main subtypes. Femme is one of those. Others . . . well, for example you have Racers, like Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, or Hunters, like Prowl. Also Structures, like Blaster and Perceptor, who have an alt for that cannot move on their own. Anyway, so these subtypes combine with regional frame-types, like Praxian, which is what Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen are, to create a great many variations on the various cybertronian form."

"So frame-type is sort of like nationality, or ethnicity, and frame-subtype is like gender. And you have a lot more subtypes than humans do. So why is it that only the one subtype, femme, is referred to as female?"

"Because they most closely resemble human females?" 

"Seriously?" 

"Yes. You have to understand Sparkplug, that cybertronians, by and by large have little contact with organic species. When we do, they tend to be very frightened of us at first. So we try to do things to make them comfortable, by emphasizing parts of our culture that are similar to theirs. Earth is sexually dimorphic, with slightly more females than males, but most of your societies are patriarchal. Had we contacted you in any circumstances other than we did, our contact team would have contained a number of the lighter frame-subtypes, such as femmes, and we would have referred to them as female, But the commander would have been of a heavier subtype, and referred to as male. It is what we do."

"But here?"

"We came to you presenting ourselves as members of an army to free earth. We had few of the lighter frame-subtypes, and earth's army is primarily male. Thus, we all presented ourselves as male. When we made contact with Elita 1, she and the other femmes chose to present themselves as female, to provide a sense of our culture. She felt that it would help you humans remember that all of Cybertron is not the army."

"I think I understand. But this issue with 'bondmates.' Spike says it is the closest your culture has to marriage, and that according to you this 'bond' is as visible as a marriage ring is to humans."

"That is true for the most part. You have to understand, just as there are other types of relationships humans may have with each other, so there are different types of relationships between mechs. Bonding is one of these. It is like marriage, in that mechs who choose to bond are usually what humans refer to as 'in love,' and that it is, ideally, for life. Also, while most mechs these days are made via Vector Sigma, created already fully grown, it is possible for a bonded couple to create offspring in a method similar in some ways to human reproduction."

"What!"

"It is not done these days, because of the war. With energon so scarce and truly save places so few, even if a new spark were created it is likely it would be reabsorbed within a few orns of creation."

"Okay, never mind. So, Spike says there are a number of bonded couples among the mechs already on earth, but Optimus Prime and Elita 1 are the only ones I have seen acting so . . . obviously. And some of the things they do are very . . . human. It doesn't seem like such things would be attractive to well, giant alien robots."

"Because most of the mechs involved in the war effort on earth are, out of respect for human sensibilities those who can present themselves as male, they have chosen to keep their relationships private, as such things are not considered acceptable here. Elita 1, however, has chosen to present herself as female. As such, she and Optimus Prime are 'playing up' their relationship, to emphasize the fact that despite everything we are, in many ways like yourselves."

"And the kissing, and all that?"

"It may not have been part of our culture originally, but all cultures change with time, Sparkplug. We have adapted some human customs. Earth has adopted some cybertronian customs. Or have you not noticed you son has taken to using some of our . . . I believe they would be called 'swear words?'"

"He's what!"

"Oops."

"Oh, I'll . . . never mind. Okay, I get your point Bumblebee. So they are partially acting that way to make themselves seem more . . . human, but they are also trying out new things. Growing. Adapting."

"Yes. A species which does not grow is dead. And we are not dead quite yet."

"Thank you Bumblebee. This talk has been most informative. Now, if you will excuse me . . . "


	3. On Bonding: Ironhide and Chromia

Confrontations: On Bonding

Ironhide and Chromia

Much to the despair of everyone, Carly and Chromia had, over the years, struck up something of a friendship. But one of their most memorable conversations had occurred early in that friendship.

Ironhide and Chromia were not the most demonstrate of mechs. Because of this, for a long time the humans had assumed that Chromia was, like Arcee and Firestar, a free femme. This had lead to some interesting events, culminating in a rather embarrassing event in which the humans had tried to set her up on a date with Sunstreaker.

After that, once her longstanding relationship with Ironhide had been revealed, she and Carly had sat down and had a discussion about relationships. Carly in particular, after hearing that Chromia and Ironhide had been bonded for nearly thirty million vorns, wanted suggestions on how to make a relationship last.

"I would say there are four things essential to any relationship. The first thing," Chromia had told her, "Is that a good relationship is equal. There has to give and take. Ironhide respects me, my ideas, my skills, my own knowledge of my limits. He trusts me to tell him when I need help. In turn I respect him. I know that when he needs me he'll ask for it, and when he doesn't I don't try to barge in where I am not wanted."

"That takes a lot of trust."

"Yeah, it does. That is the second thing. And it takes time to build that trust. He courted me for nearly one hundred vorns before I said yes to his proposal. To a human that may seem like a long time, but we both had baggage we needed to let go of. And once we bonded, our relationship was that much stronger for the time we took getting to know each other."

"So, we need to trust each other, and make sure we meet on equal ground. But he's a guy, I'm not. How can there be equality there?"

"Equality is not about subtype . . . sorry, gender. Part of equality is that you fill in each others weaknesses. I'm a femme, Ironhide's a hauler. I'm not as strong as he is physically, not as tall or as broad as he is. In return, I am far more agile, I fit places he doesn't and I can do fine work he can't. Give us both a weapon thought, and we're both dead accurate, and my cannons are more than a match for his. The main thing, is you can't give in to his personality. And I am not talking about submitting, exactly. You can submit sometimes without loosing your sense of self. It is when you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by another person's self that you are in trouble. And if your relationship is truly equal, even as you submit sometimes, so should he."

"So, what else is there. Trust, equality, surely there is more to a relationship."

"Of course there is. This next one's the hard one. Communication. You've got to talk to each other. Really talk, and really listen. Don't go into a relationship expecting it to be perfect. You'll argue like the pits sometimes. You'll scream at the top of your lungs, you'll throw things, and you'll make him sleep in the common room. But if your relationship is a good one, after you've calmed down you'll talk it through, and come to a compromise and kiss each other and say you're sorry. That's life. Its going to happen, so accept it and get through it. Plan for it even, and eventually, you'll find that even when you're screaming mad at each other you're able to talk things through."

"I guess being bonded helps there, huh? Humans don't have anything like that."

"The bond can help, and the bond can hurt. Once you're both calm, and ready to make up, yeah the bond is a good thing, helps you get to the heart of the matter quicker, but before . . . sometimes you'll open the bond and it is screaming full of so much hurt and anger that you think it would be better not to be bonded at all. Trillions upon trillions of beings all over the universe have perfectly successful relationships without mental bonds. Like any aspect of a relationship, it can be good and it can be bad."

"Huh. So, I'd like to talk more about that, but I also want to hear what the fourth thing is."

"The fourth thing, little human, is love. No matter what, you have to remember that you love each other, and that you want to be together. Love doesn't come easy sometimes. Sometimes, he'll do something stupid and you'll find yourself wondering 'why do I love this idiot?' but if you really love him, you'll see that even his idiocy is part of some larger trait, and that even if you don't love that part of the trait, you love the trait as a whole, even as you love the man. We all have flaws, and when you can love someone not in spite of, but because of their flaws, you'll know it is the real thing. After all, no being is perfect, and if you love someone you love them for who they are not who they could be."

"Wow. That sounds hard. It takes a lot of strength to keep all that up. And you and Ironhide have been bonded for thirty million vorns? That is . . . just incredible. Human marriages seldom last even a fraction of that."

"Even given the short length of your lives, the numbers on human marriages are saddening. Of course, there are cybertronian relationships that are just as short, but because of how serious a bond is to us, we tend to be more careful about how we enter into them. I told you Ironhide and I courted for one hundred vorns. I've known couples who courted for thousands of vorns."

"Really? Would I know any of them?"

"Inferno and Red Alert for one. Though given Red's personality, that is not really unexpected."

"Red Alert is bonded? To Inferno?"

"Keep it down. Don't go spreading it around. The crew knows, obviously, it's written in their very sparks to us. But they are very private, they wouldn't be to happy at random humans knowing. Security risk and all that."

"Hmmm. So, bonding. What is the bond like? It's not something humans have, are there even words to explain it?"

"It is hard to explain, and even then, they say you never know the bond till you experience it for yourself. But I will try. It is like . . . being complete for the very first time. We always think we are whole unto ourselves, and then we bond and we find a potential that we had not yet reached. You love someone and you worry about them, always it is so. But then you bond and you find that you don't have to worry, because if something were to happen you would know. There is a joy to it, the joy of two become one. Even with battle protocols muting it, there is a constant low voice, 'I am here, you are not alone, there is no need to be afraid.' It is like being wrapped in the essence of love at times, and in the depths of hate at others. It is pain, it is pleasure, it is the bond, and once you have felt it, you do not want to live without it. On Cybertron before the war, bondmates usually died within hours of each other, bond shock killing the remaining mate, who did not want to live once that essential bond was severed anyway. And then the war came, and battle protocols were developed, to lessen the bond shock of injury or death. If one bondmate died, the other would force him or her self to live on, because they were needed. These days, the Decepticons strictly forbid bonding, feeling it makes them weak. But we Autobots feel it is a strength. If a couple wishes to bond we celebrate the new union. Even if it leads to pain, we feel it is better to have had that joy for a time, than never at all."

"It is better to have loved and lost . . ."

"Carly?"

"Sorry, a human saying 'It is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all'"

"Yes. That is how we feel. It is how I feel."


End file.
